Abortion of a pregnant woman at the husband's request due to illness and financial hardship
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. This woman is asking, and she says: When I was pregnant and I was ill, my husband asked me to deliver the child and have an abortion.
The Shaykh:
First question.
The questioner:
When I was pregnant and ill, my husband asked me to deliver the child and have an abortion. She says it was due to difficult financial circumstances and because of my illness. Is this permissible?
The Shaykh:
No, it is not permissible except with a report from doctors. If the doctors determine that she needs to, or that it is necessary to, deliver the pregnancy, and the soul has not yet been breathed into it, then there is no harm. It requires a report from doctors. As for the wife or the like, no, she does not obey him. However, if the soul has been breathed into it, it is not permissible to deliver it, because it has become a soul. A soul is not to be killed unless there is a fear for her mother if it remains in her that she will die. If the doctors determine that, then it is delivered to save the mother's life.
The questioner:
You.
The Shaykh:
This matter is not a joke.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. This woman is asking, and she says: When I was pregnant and I was ill, my husband asked me to deliver the child and have an abortion.
The Shaykh:
First question.
The questioner:
When I was pregnant and ill, my husband asked me to deliver the child and have an abortion. She says it was due to difficult financial circumstances and because of my illness. Is this permissible?
The Shaykh:
No, it is not permissible except with a report from doctors. If the doctors determine that she needs to, or that it is necessary to, deliver the pregnancy, and the soul has not yet been breathed into it, then there is no harm. It requires a report from doctors. As for the wife or the like, no, she does not obey him. However, if the soul has been breathed into it, it is not permissible to deliver it, because it has become a soul. A soul is not to be killed unless there is a fear for her mother if it remains in her that she will die. If the doctors determine that, then it is delivered to save the mother's life.
The questioner:
You.
The Shaykh:
This matter is not a joke.
Source
شرح إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان لابن القيم، فصل ومن ذلك اتخاذها عيدًا — islamhouse.com (1:16:41)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.